Many Hands Make Light(s) Work!

At our previous farm in Connecticut we built an appealing quintessential, old fashioned, New England post and beam barn in a Pennsylvania bank barn style (yes, our hearts were always in Pennsylvania I guess), which was authentic to the point of having no electricity and therefore no lighting. No doubt this was very quaint and “New Englandy”, but it was also somewhat restrictive functionally, and when we needed power, we used over a hundred yards of heavy gauge extension cords or started up the generator. But this time we mean business in all senses of the word, and so we decided that we needed light and power available in the barn.

As you observed in a previous blog, we had the power company and an electrician bring power down to the new structure underground from the transformer near the house. And this past week we were graced by a visit from our very dear friends, Deacon Phil and Linda Hayes from Connecticut. Deacon Hayes has an extensive history with electricity, so we tapped into his vast knowledge base and skills and worked with him to wire up the barn with lights and with power outlets. Our children are homeschooled, and a large project like this is used as a “hands-on” shop course to supplement traditional schoolwork. And as Deacon Phil “schooled” us in the barn, Linda took the opportunity to help out with more of the other schooling that she had assisted us (and numerous other families) with while in Connecticut. It was just like being back there again!

Below you can see seven of the eight banks of three 4 foot long LED tube lights that illuminate the entire 60×40 foot structure. We used LEDs partly because they use very little power, but especially since they have an active lifespan longer than ours, and the rafters are 12 feet in the air. Not having to think about replacing them was worth the extra cost! Additionally they are plastic vs. the glass of a fluorescent tube. Breaking one of those on the gravel floor of the barn would be a disaster!

Outside, above each garage door, we placed a set of motion sensing flood lights, so we can light up the entrances. This will be especially useful during lambing season when we are moving ewes in and out before and after lambing, and walking to and from the barn during “the wee hours” to check on the ewes and their lambs. These lights at the front were one of our son’s “solo” runs as electrician apprentice, since Deacon Phil and Roy were temporarilly distracted up at the house, and he used this time to wire in and mount the lights by himself! We think he has earned an “A” for his shop “course”!

Front view

The lights at the rear were our first attempt at wiring and mounting flood lights. We figured that any mistakes out back would be learning opportunities that would be viewed by less people! These lights were quite expensive and it surprised us that they had no electrical mounting box included, so we had to go and buy one from the local store which, incidentally, was not a good fit for the other hardware, but was eactly what they suggested in the instructions. Imperfections were made watertight with gobs of silicone caulking!

Rear view

This side view shows the lights mounted closer to the door, since there was no gable to enable them to be placed higher like on the front and back.

Side view

Here is the “nerve center” of the operation containing the breaker box and the spaghetti mix of wires coming into it.

In all we have 5 high end (read expensive) dual type circuit interruptor breakers (arc fault and ground fault) for the power recepticles. We will be using these outlets to, among other things, power water heaters, and our experience has been that they can draw a lot of power. We therefore used 20 amp breakers and 12 gauge wire and limited the outlets to one or two per breaker for those circuits.

The light circuits were less concerning as they draw much less power, and we used the more standard 15 amp breakers for those. However, the challenge with the lights was that we wanted to have each bank of lights on a three way switch that operated from each end of the barn. This created the necessity for running two long cables to join the switches for each set of lights. This was a pain and expensive to say the least. Also, working out the logistics of wiring in the three way switches so that they worked as they should, kept us entertained for about two full days!

Here is another perspective on this job:

Lots of wire!

There are over 10 wire cables (each containing a power wire, return wire, ground wire and an accessory wire for the three way switches) running the full 60 foot length of the barn, not to mention a multitude of wires running back and forth to switches and lights etc. We used over 1100 feet of wire cable (with 4 wires each) meaning amost 4/5 of a mile of wire to complete this project. Note that this is all “Romex” cable which is PVC covered wire (2 or three insulated wires as well as a ground wire) in order to meet or exceed the code requiring extra covering for the wires.

Below is a view of the “people door” and adjacent breaker box beside the staging used to access the ceiling rafters in relative comfort – compared with being balanced on a step ladder that is! A HUGE note of thanks to a most awesome neighbor who graciously allowed us to use this staging for the week. Thank you, Bob! Note also that the staging marks the approximate position of the small 10×10 foot insulated room we will build as a place for a space heater, a small refrigerator for vaccines and medicines, a desk and filing system and a warm refuge for the more fragile lambs and humans! I foresee a cot set up in here some nights!

Staging in the area of the future room

So, now we have a barn with lighting and power (water will have to wait and will be another story)!

We will next change tack and begin building a moveable hen house for our layers. Below is the lumber and some hardware we will use for this project.

Next project!

Differing from what we did in Connecticut, we intend to build a light moveable coop so that we can change location every few days and provide the girls a predator-protected home. This will benefit the hens by giving them safe access to fresh pasture regularly, and us by putting the manure directly on the pasture as fertlizer, saving us the labor of cleaning out manure from a stationary coop and composting it and spreading it. More on this in a future blog.

And so as we bid farewell to our friends and mentors Deacon Phil and Linda Hayes from our well-lit barn, we look forward to seeing them again soon in the spring or summer.